Browsing: streaming

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Spotify gives its outdoor campaign a witty local twist
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At the end of last year, Spotify crunched the numbers and surfed its playlists to give thanks to its users for a ‘weird’ 2016. Now, Spotify’s brought its highly successful ‘Platform for Discovery’ campaign to New Zealand shores to highlight some the most bizarre habits of Kiwi listeners.

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Lightbox CEO Kym Niblock on giving customers choice
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The competition for content is heating up. Customers don’t want one service, they want choices that fit the type of household they are and the individual tastes in their household. Kym Niblock talks about making sure people choose Lightbox from a suite of video-on-demand services.

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Music industry returns to growth after 15 years in NZ, Kiwis wholeheartedly embracing streaming services
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The traditional notion of the music industry has been well and truly dumped on its head over the past few years, since music started its march from CD shelves to digital shelves. Yesterday New Zealand’s music revenue results were released, showing just how quick and drastic this change has been, revealing that streaming is well and truly taking over. We caught up with Spotify’s Kate Vale who says New Zealand in particular has embraced streaming with open arms, as one of the highest ‘Premium’ conversion rates of any Spotify market in the world.

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The steady rise of the digital: PwC’s entertainment and media predictions 2015-2019 – UPDATED
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The entertainment and media industries have seen a huge shift in recent years. Content viewing has gradually shifted to the online world and therefore advertising follows closely in tow while traditional media’s growth rate is slumping. PwC provides some insights and predictions of the movements of these industries closer to home and further afield between 2015 and 2019.

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Netflix to become the Netflix of NZ in March next year, plus: Neon unveils some of its lineup
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The last year has seen subscription video on demand (SVOD) become a major talking point, with various players vying to become the Netflix of New Zealand. However, claiming this title will now be difficult now following the recent announcement that the actual Netflix plans to launch in both Australia and New Zealand in March next year. PLUS: we look at Neon’s lineup.

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Lightbox fills the Kiwi void with 19 locally produced shows—UPDATED
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At end of June, upon lifting lid of Lightbox, the Spark subsidiary’s head of programming and local content Maria Mahony told StopPress that she was in talks with local film distributors to secure a deal to screen several local shows. Shortly after Lightbox’s announcements, Quickflix sent out a release saying that it had snapped up pair of local shows, which Lightbox was thought to have been interested in, and this seemingly spoiled the party for the newcomer. Then, when Lightbox later revealed its lineup there was a clear Kiwi-shaped hole in its programming, leading to questions as to whether the subscription video on demand (SVOD) provider would in fact be adding any local shows to its lineup. However, these questions have now been answered by today’s announcement that Lightbox has added no less than 19 local shows to its catalogue. UPDATE: Quickflix ups its local game with seven more shows.

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Spark partners with NBA, offers discount on basketball streaming
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Following the recent unveiling of its ambitious ‘Boroughs’ project, which will see five high-tech basketball courts introduced in Auckland, Spark has now announced a marketing partnership with the National Basketball Association. As part of this deal, Spark will offer its home broadband customers NBA League Pass and League Pass Premium annual subscriptions beginning next month, giving customers 15 percent off the full price of either a full season or a one-month subscription.

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Streaming battle continues as SVOD and on-demand players reveal what Kiwis are watching
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In recent months, on-demand streaming and subscription video on-demand services have enjoyed column inches in pretty much every publication even mildly interested in the changing media landscape. The emergence of Lightbox, the decision of Slingshot to launch Global Mode to give customers access to Netflix, Sky’s plans to launch an SVOD service in the near future and the on-demand streaming deals signed by MediaWorks and TVNZ have been just some of the areas of intrigue that this space has delivered—and a Kiwi public that previously had very limited viewing options suddenly finds itself spoilt for choice. So what exactly are Kiwis choosing and which shows are attracting the biggest audiences?

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Orange is the New Black hits one million streams in a month
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What works on Netflix also works for TVNZ. Or at least that’s what the recent on-demand statistics for Orange is the New Black suggest. Over the month of September the first and second seasons of the hit dramedy, a Netflix original, were streamed by Kiwis via TVNZ Ondemand over a million times.

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I stream, you stream, we all stream for various streaming services
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Spark Ventures’ Lightbox subscription video on demand service officially launched last night, and, not surprisingly, its arrival seems to have been the catalyst for a fair bit of activity in the streaming space, with TVNZ now offering online box sets of Orange is the New Black, Freeview’s Sam Irvine talking up an integrated broadcast and broadband offering, Quickflix claiming that more competition is a good thing and Sky, which recently announced another big profit increase, getting set to launch its own streaming service for non-Sky customers. So who’s got the best offer?

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Ricky Gervais branches out
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Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, who currently stars in Netflix original Derek, has branched out and stepped into the lead roles of several of Netflix’s shows for a new campaign that aims to promote some hit programming available through the online streaming service. The 60-second spot sees the rotund actor stepping into House of Cards, Lilyhammer and Orange is the New Black as he becomes part of the storylines that he has followed on Netflix.

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TVNZ wins with Germany as over 400,000 Kiwis tune in to watch the World Cup final
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Many of those who drove to work at the right time on 14 July claim to have found the Kiwi roads free of the traffic jams that usually typify the morning commute. This fortunate state of the road was largely attributable due to the nation’s universities and schools being closed for the winter break, but the fact that 419,000 people (according to Nielsen TAM) tuned in to TV One to watch Germany take on Argentina in the final of the World Cup definitely also played a part.

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Quickflix snaps up two local shows, responds to Lightbox and Sky
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Last week, shortly after the release of Telecom’s Lightbox offering, Quickflix announced an agreement with South Pacific Pictures that gave the veteran in New Zealand’s SVOD market rights to over 120 hours of local content via Go Girls and Outrageous Fortune. And given that Lightbox’s head of programming and local content Maria Mahony admitted to StopPress that she was currently in talks with local film distributors to secure a deal to screen several local shows, this announcement by Quickflix will no doubt be competitive blow to the newcomer.

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Sky becomes more democratic, extends Sky Go app to (some) Android users—UPDATED
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The wait for mobile viewing is over for Sky subscribers who don’t own iPads, as the broadcaster has just announced the launch of a new version of the Sky Go app that’s compatible on certain versions of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Since launching in December last year, the Sky Go app has only been available to subscribers via Apple’s products—and the popularity of this initial release has led Sky to increase the inclusivity of its offering. Updated with statistics from Nielsen and with comments from TVNZ’s general manager of on-demand Jason Foden.

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Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren on entering the Kiwi market—and what it means for Spotify and iHeartRadio
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Only a few hours after stepping off a plane at Auckland Airport on 7 April, Pandora founder Tim Westergren sat down with us for a quick chat at the Generator, the New Zealand headquarters of the company. Although Westergren’s arrival in the country came as part of a promotional push to officially introduce the music-streaming platform to the New Zealand market after its release late last year, Pandora is by no means new to the Kiwi market. PLUS: a look at how Pandora’s offering compares to Spotify and iHeartRadio.

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All Blacks continue to aim global with first-ever YouTube broadcast
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New Zealand Rugby conducted something of an experiment last week when the Bledisloe Cup test between the All Blacks and Australia was streamed live and made available on-demand on www.youtube.com/allblacks to more than 45 countries where the digital rights hadn’t been allocated exclusively to a broadcaster. So how did it go? And should Sky be worried?